Audacity Forum

When I import a file and hit the play button, the track will skip and sometimes slow down in various spots. I have a brand new computer with 2G of ram, 2G dual core, and a 512 v card. I am stumped. I try to sing with the tracks, and a little ways through the song, it will hesitate or skip and throw the beat totally off. I then have to record a new track where the skip happened so I can stay on beat. I usually have to make 5-10 seperate tracks at different points in the song. It is very frustrating. If anyone could help, I would greatly appreciate it. I am a choir director, and we sing with tracks, I really need to record demos for them to hear their harmony parts. Thanks, Andy

Hey, another Andy. Cool.

It sounds like a soundcard hardware or driver problem. I'm not sure what a 512 v card is, is that your soundcard?

You didn't mention what OS you're using, but I assume it's Vista. The biggest problem plaguing Vista audio is lack of well-written drivers. You will almost certainly have to update your soundcard drivers.

Here's the wiki page:
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... s_Vista_OS

Hey, Andy, thanks for the reply. Sorry for the lack of info. I have XP. the 512 is the video card. I had a fairly new Soundblaster Audigy card and it skipped. I uninstalled the driver for that and installed the one for the onboard 7.1 sound card that came with the Dell Inspiron. It still skipped. I don't think it's the hardware, but I can try to get a new driver. I don't know, it's just weird and annoying.

Just as a test, try zooming way out before you start recording so that Audacity doesn't have to redraw the whole screen while it's recording. Sometimes that helps people.

I actually tried that with no luck. Now, my songs are skipping and hesitating even in media player and everything else. I'm gonna try reinstalling my other audigy soundblaster card. Maybe I had the wrong driver, I don't know. All I know is when you spend what I did for a computer, and your sound doesn't work right, it sucks. But thanks for the help you guys, I'm not sure what to do at this point, and about to give up.

Trust us, we know all about the poor state of the $50 - $100 class of sound cards, especially for recording purposes.